Posted on 12/29/2003 9:13:41 AM PST by TexKat
Papal Nuncio Shot and Killed in Burundi
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican 's nuncio, or ambassador, in Burundi was shot and killed, the Vatican said Monday.
Monsignor Michael Courtney, 58, died while undergoing surgery, the Vatican's Misna missionary news agency said. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the Irish-born prelate's death but would offer no further details until the nuncio's family had been informed.
Further details were not immediately available.
VATICAN CITY (AP) _ The pope's ambassador in Burundi was shot and killed by gunmen who opened fire at his car in the Central African nation, the Vatican and a missionary news agency said Monday.
Monsignor Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb, according to the Misna missionary news agency. He died from a major hemorrhage during surgery. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death of the papal nuncio but would offer no details until his relatives had been informed. The Irish-born prelate was 58.
The Misna news agency said in a statement that Courtney was shot in Minago, about (50 kilometers) 30 miles south of Burundi's capital of Bujumbura. It described the circumstances of the attack as ``still not completely clear.'' The agency said Courtney had been traveling by car with three other passengers when gunfire from a nearby hill sprayed the vehicle. A priest in the car was lightly injured, while the driver and a hitchhiker were unharmed.
Bullets also struck the wheels of the car, slowing its arrival to the capital and medical help there, Misna said. Further details were not immediately available.
Major violence has torn Burundi for a decade. Conflict broke out there in 1993, when rebels from the Hutu majority took up arms after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu. Peace deals have taken hold in Burundi, with three rebel groups, including the largest agreeing to join the transitional government and integrate their forces into a new national army. However, one main rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, is still fighting. The group carried out attacks around the capital over the weekend, although there is no indication yet that it was involved in the attack on the Vatican envoy. Banditry is also common on many roads in Burundi.
Courtney was born in 1945 in Nenagh, 140 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of Dublin. As a young man, he briefly studied economics and law at University College Dublin, then moved on to Rome where he prepared for the priesthood and a varied diplomatic career for the Holy See. The 2000 announcement of Courtney's appointment as Burundi nuncio described him as ``one of the church's most experienced diplomats,'' recounting over 30 years of work in the church.
He was ordained in 1968, and worked as a parish priest around Ireland until 1976, it said. He then moved back to Rome for postgraduate studies, and entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy.
Beginning in 1980, he was a papal representative in South Africa, then in Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt, the 2000 announcement said. Prior to going to Burundi, he worked for five years as special envoy in Strasbourg, France, monitoring the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.
| Date | Age | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Feb 1945 | Born | Nenagh, Ireland | |
| 9 Mar 1968 | 23.1 | Ordained Priest | Priest |
| 18 Aug 2000 | 55.5 | Appointed | Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi |
| 12 Nov 2000 | 55.8 | Ordained Bishop | Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi |
| Please contact the Archbishop through the Nunciature to Burundi.
|
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Episcopal Lineage / Apostolic Succession:
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And a Happy New Year to you, too!!
Look around the world and think about it.
0.00001% is too many!
That figure sounds low, but irrelevant for the purpose of my comments.
This is a painfully classic example of a little learning is a dangerous thing. When the Tutsi-Hutu blowup first occured, I immediately sympathised with the majority, based on pretty much total ignorance. It was the human thing to do; an instinctive human response.
I was wrong.
Digging and studying and grasping as much of the background as was available made it crystal clear that the situation was analogous almost perfectly to the Israeli "palestinian" conflict. The concept of "freedom" and "fairness" can be fatal to the ignorant, when one blindly assumes that rats, for example, are entitled to rule over us simply because "there are more of them".
'Nuff said.
Bullets also struck the wheels of the car, slowing the passage to the capital and medical help there, Misna said. Courtney died from a major hemorrhage while undergoing surgery at a hospital, it said."
On first glance, it sounds more like some doped up yahoo just taking pot shots at who ever was coming down the road. The general firing and lack of a follow-up closer attack on the vehicle indicates that this was probably just random violence. Not an attack on this man in particular. But, this is only a hypothesis.
Yep. that's the one. I've never been known to reverse things like that before. Maybe I'm lexicdisc.
Have you read Debt of Honor and Executive Orders? If not you should read them first, and read them back to back, as one REALLY BIG book. The last page of Debt has Jack Ryan standing at a window looking on an event. Page one of Orders has him still at that window, contemplating the universe. The situation in Dragon won't make sense without reading those two first, though it stands on it's own as a story. Rainbow Six also has some background that helps for Bear/Dragon, but it's explained as much as need be if you don't want to read that first.
I've also finished Red Rabbit (prequel) and the beginning of the Jack Ryan Jr. stories, Teeth of the Tiger. Dissapointed in both.
BUJUMBURA, Burundi AP) _ Gunmen killed the pope's ambassador in Burundi on Monday, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral, and the country's president said the envoy was deliberately targeted.
Archbishop Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb and died during surgery at Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital, a hospital official said.
President Domitien Ndayizeye said the 58-year-old Courtney was deliberately targeted. ``It was not an accident; he was killed,'' Ndayizeye told reporters. He and other officials, however, did not say what the motive for the killing might be.
``The assailants had planned to kill him,'' Annicet Niyongabo, governor of Bururi province, said. ``They first fired into the tires and then approached to execute him. They could not mistake the car for another one because it was flying the Vatican flag.'' The gunmen had killed a soldier at the site just before the car arrived.
He was very well. He was armed with the breastplate of Christ. He died serving the servant of servants within the Church Jesus established (matt 16:18).He is a Saint; safe in Heaven.
Thanks be to God for such men and may the man/men who shot such a man reprent while there is still time and before they have to account for their souls.
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